Invented Geographies

Transcription

1 Invented Geographies Project Overview Students created large-scale sculptures for their school playground, re-envisioning a new geography for this important space at their school. This project related to their social studies curriculum s focus on mapping skills and the geography of China. Essential Question: How does geography influence our lives? Artistic Goals: 1. Students will be able to plan and create large site-specific sculptures to change the geography of a place. 2. Students will use problem-solving processes to explore materials, understanding how different materials have unique properties that can be used to convey specific ideas. Curricular Goals: 1. Students will learn how to read a map to decipher the geographical characteristics of a country. 2. Students will list different geographical characteristics and understand what they are. 3. Students will be able to chart the relationship between geographical features of a region and the lives of its inhabitants, including their cultural history, lifestyle, trade/commerce, food, language, and traditions. 4. Students will use this knowledge to anticipate how a change in geography would create a change in the daily lives of an area s population. National Content Standards Addressed: National Social Studies-Geography K-12.1: The World in Spatial Terms Students understand how to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective. Students understand how to use mental maps to organize information about people, places, and environments in a spatial context. Students understand how to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environments on Earth s surface. National Social Studies-Geography K-12.2: Places and Regions Students understand the physical and human characteristics of places. Students understand how culture and experience influence people s perceptions of places and regions. National Arts-Visual Arts K-4.3: Choosing and Evaluating a Range of Subject Matter, Symbols, and Ideas Students explore and understand prospective content for works of art. Students select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning.

2 Part 1: Memory Maps What is geography? What are the geographic characteristics of the school neighborhood? Activity 1: Neighborhood maps Students created maps of their neighborhood, beginning with drawing the area from memory. They then took a neighborhood walk as a class, noting in their sketchbooks important sights, sounds, and pathways to add to their maps. Students further developed their maps by incorporating items they had been learning about, including a compass rose, bird s eye view, and map key. During these sessions, the teaching artist also led inquiry discussions about works by van Gogh and Pissarro to introduce students to the elements of landscape painting. Inquiry Artworks: Camille Pissarro, The Hermitage at Pontoise, 1867; Vincent van Gogh, Mountains at St. Remy, 1889 Recommended Time: Two 45-minute sessions Materials: Paper, colored pencils Part 2: Altered Maps If a geographical characteristic of a region was added or removed, how would the lives of its inhabitants be different? Activity 2: Changing the Local Geography The teaching artist first asked the class to brainstorm how life in New York City would change by altering the geography. After doing a guided exploration into collage techniques, the students worked in teams to cut and collage a New York City subway map, adding new elements with drawings, and making changes with the intent to change the lives of people in the city. Inquiry Artwork: Subway map Recommended Time: Two 45-minute sessions Materials: Subway maps, markers, colored pencils, paper, glue Activity 3: Altered China Maps After studying mapping and Chinese geography in Social Studies class, students undertook a project similar to their experiment with the New York maps. They re-imagined the Chinese landscape in collage, considering the ways in whichäáñéíüéêéïçìäçäéåü~åöéçáñíüéöéçöê~éüóïéêé~äíéêéçk

3 m~êípwmä~óöêçìåçmä~ååáåö eçïå~åëáíéjëééåáñáåëåìäéíìêéëåü~åöéöéçöê~éüó\ Activity 5: 5 Team discussions and drawing Students were introduced to the concept of site-specific sculpture a work of art created for exhibit in one particular place and discussed how these works can change a person s experience of being in a place. They were told that their playground would be a site for their own artworks. Students were put into teams and each team received a photograph of a part of the playground, as well as a direction for changing this area, for example, make your part of the playground more peaceful. Teams then drew plans for a site-specific sculpture that would create that change. Recommended Time: One 45-minute session Materials: Photographs of the playground, paper, pencils Activity 6: Project models and proposals Students began to transfer their 2D plans into 3D sculpture by conducting a materials exploration, where they built with paper, board, and tape on a model based on their playground plan. Teams worked together to create a project proposal for their playground sculpture that included written descriptions and drawings. They presented the proposals to the class in a mock community meeting. Inquiry Artworks: Robert Smithson, Yucatan Mirror Displacements, 1969 Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970 Richard Serra, Tilted Arc, 1981 Recommended Time: Three 45-minute sessions Materials: Paper, board, tape Part 4: Sculpture Installation How does changing the geography of the playground affect the experience of being in this space? Activity 7: 7 Final Sculptures Students worked in their teams to build their final sculptures for the playground. Materials used were larger versions of familiar art supplies, such as Foamcore, cloth, and stuffing. In the same way that sculptors rely on their studio assistants in preparing the components of their work, students ordered material cutting and scoring from the teaching artist. Students then examined the use of color in sculpture and the effects of color on a place. Each team selected one color for their sculpture that they felt was appropriate to the piece. Students installed their pieces on the playground for one day, and documented their work with photography. In groups, they reflected on the ways in which their sculptures changed the familiar site. Inquiry Artwork: Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Gates Recommended Time: Three 45-minute sessions

4 Materials: Foamcore, tape, glue, cardboard, X-acto knife (for the teaching artist to use), paint, sketchbooks, digital cameras Resource Materials Art 21. Richard Serra. Biography. PBS.org, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Robert Smithson: Spiral Jetty. Dia Art Foundation, Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years. Museum of Modern Art, interactives/exhibitions/2007/serra/

5 Sample Inquiry Plans Vincent van Gogh Mountains at Saint-Rémy, July 1889 Oil on canvas, 28 1/4 x 35 3/4 inches Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser Also available at Inquiry script: What do you notice? Imagine what it would feel like to be in the mountains. Describe the brushstrokes in this painting. How do they affect how you think it would feel to be in this place? The artist, Vincent van Gogh, wrote a letter to his brother as he was working on this painting. He said: They will tell me that mountains are not like that and that there are black outlines of a finger s width. He knew that others would think his brushstrokes were too thick to be realistic, but he chose to make them this size anyway. How do you think this painting would change if the brushstrokes were different?

6 Camille Pissarro The Hermitage at Pontoise, ca Oil on canvas, 59 5/8 x 79 inches Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser Also available at Inquiry script: What do you notice? What can we tell about this place? How is this place different from your own community? How is it similar? This place, known as the Hermitage, is outside of Pontoise, a town near the city of Paris. The artist lived here for many years. What would it be like to live here? Would you want to live here? Why or why not?

7 Robert Smithson Yucatan Mirror Displacements (1 9), Cibachrome prints from chromogenic 35 mm slides, 17 x 17 x 1 1/2 inches each (framed) Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Purchased with funds contributed by the Photography Committee and with funds contributed by the International Director's Council and Executive Committee Members: Edythe Broad, Henry Buhl, Elaine Terner Cooper, Linda Fischbach, Ronnie Heyman, Dakis Joannou Estate of Robert Smithson/Licensed by VAGA, New w York, NY Image also available at Inquiry script: What do you notice? What do you think this space might have looked like before the artist got there? How did the artist change it? In creating this work of art, the artist, David Smith, arranged 12-inch mirrors in a number of sites around the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, and then photographed his arrangements. If you could add another element to Smith s installation besides mirrors, what would you include? Why? How would this change the landscape?

8 Christo The Gates, Project for Central Park, New York, 2003 Pencil, charcoal, pastel, wax crayon, enamel paint, fabric sample, hand-drawn drawn map, technical data and tape, sheet (1): 96 x 15 inches; sheet (2): 96 x 42 inches Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Purchased with funds contributed by Peter B. Lewis Image also available at Inquiry Script: Take a moment to look at this image. What do you notice? Where do you think this is? Why would an artist choose this location? This is a plan for a project called The Gates. The artists installed over 7,000 fabric gates throughout Central Park, to be displayed for one month. Why do you think they chose this color for the gates? How would it be different if they chose another color? How do you think The Gates changes the landscape of this place?